Red Like Roses
by QuaintDeath
Summary: Ruby Rose sees the world in black and white, until something happens that forces her to question her morals and see the grey in life. (Not very likely to be updated.)
1. Chapter 1

Another successful mission. A team of four huntresses sat in a VTOL taking them home, the sounds of its engines whirring softly set two of them into a lulled state that bordered on sleep as exhaustion set in. The chamber smelt of sweat and the ash of Grimm, with a small hint of rose behind it all. Their clothes were wrinkled, their stamina drained, and their tiredness set in.

A specific blonde, however, had decided not to show her weariness.

This specific blonde spoke a bit too loudly given the state of her teammates, but she addressed their leader in this tone regardless. "That was rad! Ruby, you gotta get Ozpin to give us extra credit more often. Getting out of the school and actually killing stuff is way more fun." She smashed her fists together at this statement and gave an appreciative smile.

Having matched her sister`s endurance, Ruby was the only on their team beside her Yang not to be trying to get some rest. Rubbing her neck, she replied. "Heh, well, I wasn`t exactly asking for it. Ozpin just kind of sprang it on us, and I figured it`d be fun."

A pack of Beowolves had terrorized a village just north of the City of Vale, it being a group of at least three dozen residing in the Forever Fall forest. Given its relatively low threat level, when Ozpin had received a report of the local Grimm acting up, he`d figured he might as well give some of his students more real world experience disguised as a generous amount of extra credit.

So, of course, team RWBY had accepted. They`d arrived at their destination, hunted down and destroyed the pack, then began making their way back to school all in just under 18 hours. As they were on the carrier on the way back, Yang spoke of their hard work, noting how far they`d progressed since they`d joined the school.

"We kicked butt! I say we celebrate with a night out on the town." As she declared this, she shot to her feet in overdone passion, raised her arms, and only spoke louder; this, of course, annoyed their two remaining partners. Yang`s enthusiasm seemed a bit forced, and it was clear to Ruby she just wanted an excuse to drink, despite the fact that it`ll easily be midnight by the time they get back.

Blake, however, thought after 18 hours, sleep`s promises were more alluring. She was currently leaning back in one of the Bullhead`s seats, eyes drooped and breathing slowed. "It`s late, Yang. I don`t exactly think it`d be wise to stay out to such a time, even if it is Sunday tomorrow." She yawned as she said this, emphasizing her point.

"Disregarding the time," Weiss chipped in as she looked up to glare at the noise maker, "I`m weary and I reek." As an example, Weiss held her arm up and sniffed, making a face of disgust and turning away. "I wouldn`t be caught dead in public being in this condition."

Yang looked disappointed but huffed and accepted. "Fine." More huffed breaths and crossed arms, she seemed to Ruby quite like a child who`d just been denied their candy.

Ruby figured if Yang really wanted to go out so late, she might as well humour her. Plus she doubted anyone they knew would really be out and about to smell them anyway. "Yang, I wouldn`t exactly be able to go into a bar with you, but what about a nice coffee shop? I know a good one that sells alcohol," she`d said to her sister in a singsong voice. "Just the two of us can go, so Weiss and Blake here can get some rest." Weiss especially looked appreciative at this: an heiress needs her beauty sleep.

Yang`s face lit up. As she wrapped her arms around Ruby in a hug, she said, "Thanks, Ruby! I knew you were the cool one of the team!" Smothering her sister, she only stopped when she heard a faint "I can`t breath."

Once the VTOL landed and Ruby had thanked the pilot, the team made their way to the locker room, Weiss and Blake practically being carried, and stored their weapons away. Ruby`s feet were dragging at first, and she had yearned for nothing more than to go to her room and plop face first onto her bed, but as she continued walking her body was able to shake off its weariness. Both Weiss and Blake crawled into their beds as soon as they reached the dorm room, asleep almost instantly in their disheveled combat attire. Yang and Ruby, their teammates now safely in their beds, made their way to and out the main entrance to the school.

Upon stepping outside, Ruby took a deep breath. The air was cold and fresh, much better than the rank smell of a fight that had encompassed her on the VTOL. As she took the air in, she felt it fill her lungs, forcing out a shiver. It was nearing Christmas, and with it, the weather was shifting and snow was beginning to fall. Looking over what she could see of Beacon`s campus, Ruby really appreciated the aesthetic vibe given off by the shattered moon`s beams reflecting off of the thin layer of snow. Sights like these never failed to put her mind at ease.

Yang bumped Ruby`s shoulder, stirring her out of her thoughts. With both sisters knowing Yang would be drunk off her ass and unable to drive her motorcycle on the way home, they made their way to the bus stop nearest the school campus. It was nearing midnight, but luckily the buses ran all night in the City of Vale.

Only having needed to wait ten minutes or so, a dilapidated omnibus pulled up, the older vernacular used in this case as Ruby really doubted the vehicle was less than three decades old - it was slow and spewed enough fumes to take a chunk of the Ozone out on its own. They paid their fare and took their seats near the back of the bus, no other passengers in sight. Most of the windows were down despite the weather, Ruby feeling the need to pull up her hood to block a bit of the chilled wind once the driver had set them off.

It ferried them across town and made its way in its series of stops until it arrived at an intersection in a more shady, less maintained part of the commercial district in the city`s north-eastern region. They got off, Ruby making sure to thank the driver in a fashion similar to that she`d used with the Bullhead pilot, and she set off in a direction, leading Yang to their destination and making idle chit-chat on their way.

They soon saw a corner shop, a hanging sign printed the name A Coffee Shop. "Not exactly the most creative, huh?" Yang pointed out. Ruby just smiled at her and shrugged. The building was fairly small, it`s roof too flat to make it seem any more impressive, and it almost seemed as if it were forcefully jammed between a couple of other shops she`d never bothered to look into.

After they had walked the rest of the distance to the shop - Yang doing her responsible older-sister-duty of making Ruby look both ways before crossing the street - and they entered and approached the hostess at the entrance. She greeted Ruby with an air of familiarity, and the blush that had formed on Ruby`s cheeks made Yang think she had her own excuses for wanting to come.

"Ruby! Did you come by this late just to see me?" A taller woman, she stood at around 5`10" (172cm), her warm amethyst eyes greeted them with a smile. Despite her height, she still showed obvious signs of youth, as well as having a certain roundness to her face. She wore a waitress` outfit showing a bit of genericism in design, complete with a notepad and pen in one of the front pockets of her blue and white knee-length dress.

Ruby smiled wide as a small amount of blush formed on her cheeks. Yang looked between the two with a knowing smile, noting that Ruby had stood up just a bit straighter. "Are you two-"

"No!" Ruby interrupted, clearing her throat as her face began to further reflect her name. "She`s uh, just a friend." Yang couldn`t help but notice the slight disappointment on the hostess` face, but decided to wait until they were alone.

The hostess nodded slightly and waved her hand at Yang to address her. "So, who`s your friend, Ruby? You usually come here alone." Slightly less warmth in her eyes, an emotion bordering on jealousy taking its place.

Ruby coughed slightly and waved her hand towards the hostess. "Yang, this is Isabelle. Isabelle, Yang here is my older sister."

Yang, while she had fun watching her sister squirm, really wanted to get to the fun. "Yeah, yeah, it`s a pleasure. What kind of drinks do you got? Any whiskey?"

Isabelle looked a bit thrown off, though relieved at the mention of Yang just being Ruby`s sister. Her surprise was quickly hidden with a smile and she waved them to their seats. "We don`t usually expect many customers at this time, so we don`t have as many of our staff running as we would during the day. I`ll be serving you myself."

After they were seated and had showed their server a school ID confirming Yang was above 16, one of them was sucking down much more whiskey than someone her age should, while the other had ordered an entire strawberry shortcake and blushed profusely anytime Isabelle so much as looked at her.

"So how`d you find this place?" Yang`s voice was altered slightly, showing the burn she was feeling from her drink, her eyes showing a bit less focus than normal, though that could be the result of sleep deprivation rather than the alcohol. Ruby mentioned something about a weapon shop being nearby, but Yang suddenly became preoccupied with a crack running through their table.

Like a large majority of buildings on this side of the commercial district, the shop was in disrepair. There were what looked like mustard stains on the windows by the sister`s seats, and for some reason, there was the smell of- wait, no, that was them. Hopefully, their waitress friend wouldn`t notice.

Snow gently drifted down from the sky, and the small pieces of fluff began piling up on the ground. Though her view was tinted from a variety of condiments, Ruby quite liked watching it fall. Her shoulders slumped and her eyes softened, her exhaustion showing and catching up with her.

They made lazy chit-chat about school and other various topics but Yang kept drifting away to her own thoughts as the alcohol began taking its effects. Isabelle came back often to give Yang refills, further making regular conversation difficult, and to compliment the oblivious, blushing Ruby. It was after the waitress threatened to stop bringing more drinks if she didn`t slow down that Yang decided to ask the question Ruby was dreading.

"So, Isabelle, eh?" She looked at Ruby as her eyebrows danced, drawing out a giggle from the younger.

"I don`t like her like that, she`s just nice." Ruby seemed to be having a hard time looking into those lavender eyes of her sister, her blush from earlier had returned and betrayed her feelings.

"Please, you`re the worst liar I know. If I couldn`t recognize when you had a crush, what kind of sister would I be? She obviously likes you too. Just go for it and stop being such a weenie."

Ruby began focusing on her cake more, stuffing her mouth and speaking in mumbles. It took a solid minute of Yang staring at her and for the cake to near running out to get her to give in.

Ruby took a deep breath. "Okay okay, I might like her a bit, but I don`t really think it`s mutual," Ruby said solemnly. "Plus she`s a year older than me and there`s the whole 'Oh, you`re going to Beacon at your age? Guess I`ll have some unrealistic expectations about your maturity only to find out you act your actual age sometimes which gives people mixed reactions from your personality and makes them confused and it tends to turn them off.'" Ruby huffed and leaned on her arm, starting on the last slice of cake. "Plus, I don`t exactly have the most experience in this type of thing."

Yang hadn`t paid attention to most of that. She`d finished the rest of her drink which had apparently sent her over the edge. She was staring at her empty glass, starting to wonder why it ran out. "Just go for it. Never know if you don`t try." Now holding her glass upside down and looking up at it, Yang blinked in surprise a couple seconds after a drop had landed on her nose.

"Uh, sure. You think we should go home? You aren`t exactly seeming that... present." Ruby began pulled out her wallet, as she figured Yang wasn`t in the best position to handle money right now.

Yang didn`t answer her question, and instead began talking about something Ruby had a hard time trying to completely understand - her words not exactly slurring, but seeming to be out of place. "What if the I and the fell drink? I and can`t have the next."

Ruby sighed and got up to go find Isabelle as Yang continued mumbling. Hopefully, in the moments she was gone she wouldn`t turn into the mad type of drunk and kill somebody. That`s what people did drunk, right? Ruby didn`t really know how it worked, her uncle able to handle himself, and Yang usually going to clubs to beat people up and get information instead of drinking. She internally shrugged, and assumed her sister would be fine.

* * *

A thin man had watched as two girls entered the restaurant. Even slouching over himself, he stood at about 6`1" (184 cm), a lot of his height coming from his disproportionately long legs, his waist coming up to where most his height would have a stomach. Greasy black hair fell onto his bare shoulders and a sleeveless shirt hung loosely on his skinny frame. Everything about him, from his alcohol stained lips to the knife holster hanging on his belt loop off to his left, screamed danger.

He slipped his knife out of its sheath and gave it a ghost of a kiss, the contact he gave was brief but full of love. Even with the touch being momentary, the chills the blade gave him were far more than the weather could ever do. His love was big, the blade itself measuring in at twelve inches and curved upwards wickedly, the metal a deep black. Despite its size, it was light, and could be tossed around with ease. He`d done this more times than he could count, but the thought of satisfying his knife, whom he`d often refer to as his sweet, always gave him goosebumps.

Gathering what he could from his personal lady luck, he gave another, more forceful kiss to his sweet and returned it to its sheath. He then cleared his face of any bliss he`d just received and walked to the store`s entrance. The original plan had been to wait for the girls to come back out of the coffee shop, but the snow had begun to fall earlier and he really wasn`t dressed appropriately. Upon entering, he heard a "One minute sir, I`ll be right there."

A few moments later, a different girl greeted him. He didn`t like her eyes; they were too soft and he doubted she`d put up a fight. His sweet was aching regardless, but she wasn`t worthy.

While he wasn`t a patient man when it came to standing outside a restaurant, he was when it came to this; only special cases deserved to treat his blade. She eyed his holster for a moment but said nothing. It`s too common for civilians to bring weapons everywhere with them on this side of town for her to complain.

Ignoring his urges telling him to relieve his sweet here and now, he took a seat at the table the soft lady had ushered him to. The waitress seated him fairly close to the other girls so she wouldn`t take too long waiting between the two parties. Though he was close enough to hear the other two speak, he had been seated around a bend to try and preserve privacy, meaning they hadn`t yet and couldn`t see him; he supposed however that it was possible they heard the Soft Lady tell him to wait and would know somebody entered through that, but no matter. They didn`t have his face nor his exact location yet, assuming they`d even have recognized him as a threat at all, so he held an advantage there. This Soft Lady asked questions, something about being out late, and his name, but he didn`t bother answering and just told her to bring him the strongest drink she had.

The waitress came back often, and every time she did she asked if he needed anything, and he replied every time asking for a refill as well as for her to stop talking to him. Soft Lady seemed hurt, but he didn`t care - those eyes didn`t deserve his respect nor concern. The drink, at least, was strong and lit his throat aflame, giving him a good buzz running through his head and warming him from the inside out. It was almost crystal clear, and in no way smelled alcoholic, leading him to make to fairly safe assumption that it was Vodka. He finished downing another drink and turned his ears to the girls, almost visibly cringing at their speak of school and crushes.

He continued to listen to them speak until one got up to go pay; strange, considering he didn`t think it was that type of restaurant, but after he considered their conversation towards the end he figured the hooded girl might just want some alone time with the Soft Lady.

For a moment he did nothing. He had recently gotten a refill, so he doubted Soft Lady would be back too soon. Hopefully, she and Hood were flirting and distracted. Should he wait for Hood to get back and go after both girls at once, or should he settle for just her friend?

The weight of his knife grew, his sweet telling him it was almost time. Taking this for an answer, he stood and walked over to the booth Hood and the blonde had sat at, his knife practically pulsing. She was saying something he couldn`t comprehend, but he nodded his head and smiled. "Good point, I`d never considered that." When people are drunk to this extent, they tended to "comprehend" things they wouldn`t while sober, so, while surprised, she looked at him appreciatively.

"Not Ruby?" Yellow was confused, but she was too drunk to be wary like she probably should be. A malevolent grin was beginning to spread across the man`s face. Blonde will bleed well.

"I`m not Ruby, but I know where she is. She asked me to take you to her." He held out his arm and gave her a plastic smile, his maliciousness unnoticed by her cloudy eyes. She seemed to understand and stood, taking his arm, and continued to speak nonsesnse, his head bouncing up and down to agreed with every word, if you could call them that at this point, that tumbled out of her mouth.

All the while, his knife getting more and more excited.

* * *

Ruby was freaking the fuck out. She`d felt this kind of panic before; it was the type of panic that set in during a battle once you`d come to realize you had just begun to lose.

After Isabelle made her blush madly, and Ruby being the wimp she was returning to her seat without a number, she`d found Yang was nowhere to be seen.

"Yang? Did you leave?" She`d called out while looking around her immediate area and, not seeing her sister, went to Isabelle to ask if Yang had been seen leaving.

"She may have left with that other guy who came in earlier. He ended up skipping and not paying for his drinks."

At this, Ruby stood stock still. "What did he look like?"

"Pretty creepy in my opinion. Really tall and looked like a common crook." At seeing Ruby`s fears start to spread across her face, she started to backtrack. "I mean, I doubt he would kill her or anything. Probably just wanted into her pants, you know? She seems like a big girl, she`ll have fun."

This of course only made things worse. In a battle, Ruby would have pushed this panic away and would focus on doing whatever she could to turn the battle around. Instead, she now just pushed the panic to her legs. Ruby started to run, ignoring Isabelle`s cries, and bolted out of the shop. Though the snow had only just started to pile up, there was too much coming down for footprints to be obvious anywhere, the weather much worse than it had been earlier.

Okay, Ruby, calm down. Some creep had a drunk-off-her-ass Yang. Closest hotel, right? She really wished she knew this part of town. She`d only been to this side of the commercial district a couple times to see Isabelle, and to visit few various weapon repair shops to keep Crescent Rose in check.

Oh, right, police. She began walking in some random direction, oblivious to her surroundings, and pulled out her scroll. Ruby began punching in 911, having to try a few times due to her hands shaking too much, but hesitated before hitting the call button. Aren`t there some rules about when you call 911 about verses directly calling the police station? After some consideration, she pressed backspace a few times and sorted through her contacts to find the number to the police department- her father had insisted she have as many emergency numbers as possible upon her moving into Beacon - and hit call.

"City of Vale`s police department, how may I help you?" the gruff, raspy voice sounded weary, making Ruby worry the man on the other side of the line would be willing to give as much help as she needed.

Ruby paused for a second. What did she need to report? A kidnapping, a missing person? Probably the later if she didn`t know for sure he`d taken her. "I was in a shop with my sister and she was really drunk, and I turned my back for a few minutes and she was gone and the waitress said the only other person in the shop was this creep and he left too and I`m not entirely sure if I want to report this as a kidnapping but I`m really scared and I thought I shouldn`t call 911 because I don`t know exactly how serious this is but I need help." Ruby was sure he could hear her heart beating out of her chest at this point, and she had to keep reminding herself to hold the scroll as steady as her hands would allow.

"Missing person`s reports," the man began, using a bored tone that said he`d used this exact phrase many times before, "while they can be filed right away if you`re truly worried, are preferred to be submitted twenty-four hours after the person you`re looking for is gone. If she would have turned up otherwise it would have used up valuable police time." He sighed before adding, "Also it`s late, and I doubt anyone will give it their all to help look for some drunk girl who got lost. Wait until tomorrow morning and see if she calls you needing a ride home from a hotel or something." Then he hung up on her.

Are you kidding me? Ruby wanted to slam her scroll onto the ground and grind it into dust, then find whoever it was that she was just speaking with and strangle them. Is it even legal to hang up like that when someone needed help? She really doubted it. Was he right saying she would waste valuable time? Maybe, but it`s their job to help those in trouble, not just turn away girls scared for their sister.

Alright, alright, calm down. These thoughts are kind of mean. He`s just, kind, doing his job. Isabelle said Yang`s a big girl, right? She can handle herself. Even drunk she`ll destroy anyone messing with her, she just needs some time to realize what`s going on.

With Yang being as hammered as she is, Ruby honestly doubted her sister will be realizing anything anytime soon. Maybe the man over the scroll was right in saying bringing the police into this was too much for right now, but she could look herself. If only she knew where to start.

Ruby considered going back inside the restaurant to ask Isabelle if she knew of any hotels or motels nearby- cheaper ones being where she assumed she would most likely find her sister, but after the hostess tried to just brush off the issue, Ruby doubted she`d be taken seriously. That plus she`d walked a way while talking to the policeman, and she wasn`t so sure she knew which direction the coffee shop was. She could bring up a map on her scroll, but after being on their mission for as long as they had been, they`d had no time nor place of convenience where charging a scroll would have been possible, so Ruby`s only mode of communication was dangerously close to dying.

Instead, she continued in her random directions. Ruby`s experience in Vale led her to be used to and expectant of architecture that towered far over her, but in this rundown section of the city the buildings were scarce over one story, and Ruby felt off in the environment. The snow was falling heavier and the wind was picking up, leading to her pulling up her hood to shield her from as much as possible.

She continued walking along for who knows how long, not really sure what she was looking for, until she read out a sign that read The Goblin`s Nest. A motel? Score. It had only drawn Ruby`s attention due to it`s living quarters being two stories, making it the largest structure in the area.

She entered the building closest to the main parking lot, assuming it would be the reception, and walked in. A man sat in a chair behind the receptionist desk, and a friendly smile along with a horrific face of scars greeted her, not that she`d stare; Ruby found herself prefering the greeting of the walls, as they shielded her from what was becoming quite the storm outside.

"Hello there, welcome to The Goblin`s Nest. What`s a young lady like yourself doing here at a time like this?" At second glance, his smile seemed like less of one you`d use to make a friend and more of one you use to make money. It didn`t reach his eyes, and instead all she saw there was a dull brown shade filled with greed.

Ruby rubbed some feeling back into her hands and beat some of the snow off of her clothes, grateful for the heated room. "Yeah, haven`t really had the time to go home yet. Have you seen my sister? Blonde, probably drunk off her butt, and with some creep? Couple years older than me?"

His eyes lit up, and with it, his smile widened. "Why, I`m not quite sure. My memory seems to be slipping away along with my youth. I don`t suppose you could jog my memory with a picture or something else?" He gave slight emphasis at the mentioning of something else, and Ruby sighed, pulling out her wallet.

She knew, of course, that he meant money. Looking into her wallet which was all but cleared out by Isabelle, she pulled out a twenty-Lien card from a side pocket she hadn`t touched in the longest time, reserved for emergencies, and Ruby figured this was as good a time as any to use it. "I don`t exactly have much more where this came from, so please just tell me if you know anything." Ruby hoped her saying please would help; politeness can take you a long way. Her desperation was beginning to show in her voice, and her hand shook as she handed the Lien over.

She was slightly worried when his face fell into a grimace, but he took the Lien anyway, his expression shifting to one of pity. "They`re in room 106, now scram." His eyes left her as he leaned back in the chair, looking as if he was about to take a nap.

She gave him a thank you along with an only slightly forced smile. Ruby steeled herself, knowing the snow was only falling faster and faster, and made her way out of the reception hall and towards the main building. The weather greeting her being much stronger than it had been earlier, and she began having to march much more forcefully through the piling slush to get to her destination. Room 106, unsurprisingly, was on the first of the two floors and was a relatively short distance away from the reception.

Room 106 was the only one she could see with the light still on, though a lot of it was blocked by shabby blinds. This along with what was practically a blizzard by this point made Ruby surprised she could see any light escaping in the first place. All her anxiety folded over on itself and increased exponentially, and she was worried about what she`d see. She peeked into the window slowly, not wanting to attract any attention in case Yang really is in trouble, and looking through a slit between a couple of slightly bent blinds, she was just barely able to make out the dim outline of her sister.

Yang sat just behind a light source, what Ruby assumed to be a lamp, and with the blonde facing the window, it was hard to distinguish features; she didn`t, however, seem particularly like she was in trouble, and instead her sister just kept talking about whatever it is she likes to talk about when she`s drunk. Looking past her and around the rest of the room, she saw that it was scarcely furnished and incredibly dull for a living area. Ruby doubted anyone would come here unless they were truly had nowhere else to go. Silver eyes widened as a much less dull man approached Yang from behind.

Ruby noticed knife holster on his belt, and her fear only increased drastically when she saw him reach to his side and begin to unsheath it. Adrenaline and panic drove her, rose petals appearing at her previous spot by the window, and she twisted the doorknob desperately, finding it locked. She then rushed to the window to try and pry it open. Also locked. Slow, slow, I`m too slow.

Though the current situation wouldn`t benefit much by her moving faster, as needed to think faster, this hadn`t occured to Ruby and she didn`t know what else to do. The more she pushed her semblance, the slower time - and through some paradox, herself - seemed to move, making her just push herself to move faster. Ruby`s Aura was reacting in turn with her emotions, and it seemed to bubble in her body. She pushed as much as she had downward, her legs feeling as if they were on fire from the amount of raw energy in them, but she ignored this and continued pushing herself. At every footstep she took, the sound hesitated and the air fled, making the already biting wind pick up even more, a wild breeze picking the ever growing mass of rose petals and twirling them as if in a tornado. Faster, faster. Yang is going to die. You need to move faster.

The door was locked, the windows wouldn`t open. In what seemed like forever, Ruby came to a decision. She ran back a few feet, turned, and charged the window, all the while urging each step to be faster than the last.

* * *

It`d happened so fast.

He finally had Blonde alone and oblivious. He had just been in the bathroom sharpening his knife and showering it with kisses, his sweet being so excited he could practically feel it shake. It was ready, which meant so was he.

He`d put his knife into its sheath knowing how it loved its theatrics and would prefer to be taken out right before the kill. Walking out of the bathroom, he came up from behind Blonde, who had continued to mutter to herself throughout the night. Fine by him, just means she won`t notice. He knew she`d easily be able to snap his neck if she knew what he was planning on doing, but that risk had just made this game that much more exciting.

By the looks of her, she might be a huntress, or at least a huntress-in-training. No weapons he can see, but she has the look, and while her gait was sloppy as she stumbled drunkenly, she had still moved with confidence. This can sometimes be a problem when it comes to Aura doing its annoying protection bullshit, but drunk and unsuspecting means it won`t have the time to activate before his knife pierces her. The only way this could be easier is if he waited for her to fall asleep, but his sweet had decided now was the time, and he was more than willing to oblige.

He smiled, reaching for his sweet, and bit back a moan threatening to surface - his sweet had hammered it into his head: save it until after the deed is done.

But he never got to truly enjoy himself. As soon as he`d begun pulling out his knife, there was the sound of the doorknob being fiddled with, and nearly simultaneously the window creaked as if someone was trying to open it, his eyes not even having the time to look between the two.

Then, barely a measurable amount of time after, the window shattered, bringing a storm of rose petals so thick, the number being so high, that the room was soon shrouded in the red darkness. If he had lived, he for certain would have had this storm in his nightmares.

While this hurricane seemed to ignore Blonde, it hit him full force. He slammed against the back wall and the impact forced his sweet from his grasp. He didn`t know what was going on, but this last thought of his weapon leaving him almost brought him to tears.

That is until he felt it being plunged into his chest. And again. Over and over his sweet met him, crying its red tears of sweet relief, lost in the storm of petals, and he met these tears with his own. His sweet`s will was his own, so while he cried alongside it, he smiled.

He expected his vision to become black, but it stayed this horrid shade of red, these petals seeming to bury him further and further down until they were the ones biting into him instead of his sweet, digging into his flesh and mixing with his blood, puncturing him from every angle and turning his tears into their own shade of red.

* * *

 **A/N:** Any and all reviews are welcome. I`m incredibly out of practice in my writing and I`m very unused to writing in any style appropriate for this site. Thank you for reading.


	2. Chapter 2

She`d ran fast and hard, as far as she could from that room with energy she didn`t have, fleeing from the transgression and sister she doubted she`d ever truly be able to face _(a poor excuse for a huntress unable to atone for their past mistakes)_.

Ruby was exhausted, not from the battles she`d had against the Grimm in the Forever Fall forest, not from going without sleep for who knows how long, and, though she would be ashamed to admit it, not from her sins of that day - not to say it wasn`t acting as its own circle of hell.

It was the unrelenting storm. She didn`t know how long she`d been outside, but she was long past shivering, that hood pulled far over her eyes _(as red as the mess you`ve made here)_ protecting her the best it could, the wind cutting through her clothing like a knife. She was walking in opposition to the wind, her mind unable to understand that that was a problem.

At first, as she`d ran, she`d felt her heart beat to a point she`d thought it`d burst. She`d felt her breaths so short she had been unconvinced that she was breathing at all. She`d felt snow fling itself into her eyes, adding to the tears flowing freely. Ruby didn`t know when she`d stopped running, nor when she`d stopped feeling these things. She now only noticed two things: The cold, and the Guilt.

The cold was slowly draining her strength away, sapping away her reserves of mental energy as she was all but out of the physical variant, leaving her head in torment. The Guilt constantly beat against her mind as her defenses fell further and further away. Ruby was far past the point of wanting to give up this fight, but it was an involuntary battle, and she could only wait until it inevitably overtook her. She tried her best not to focus on it, though this was becoming increasingly difficult as she began losing focus on everything else.

Her vision was failing; the whiteness around her the same blurry mass she`d been in since she`d left that room, but no longer could she see through the haze of the storm that had grown too thick. Looking down, she could only see the vague outlines of her blood-stained hands and of the knife she`d never let go, the red that stained her only fueling the Guilt, it pounding on her harder with that monstrous shade plastered in her mind, the worst weapon she`d ever have used against her. Somewhere in the part of her brain that still worked rationally, she`d expected at one point to walk into a building or a tree or some type of solid object, but she just continued on, seeing nothing but the white of the snow and the sinful red of her being. Ruby was beginning not to care.

Her hearing was leaving her; where once she`d heard the raging winds around her beat against her ears and causing an audible flapping in her cape and hood, the noise had dimmed and all she heard was a faint pulsing behind her ears _(your blood, you weren`t the one to have it stolen)_. Even her breathing seemed suppressed, and she was finding it hard to confirm she was doing it at all. Ruby decided this wasn`t too big of a problem at this point.

She could no longer feel her body; she knew she had blood, as well as tears, frozen to the skin along her face, neck, and hands _(the tears didn`t match the blood in meaning or volume, it hadn`t been enough)_. She knew the weather was harsh, the snow near blinding in its thickness, but she was starting to have trouble keeping her eyes open to know what was going on in reality. The blizzard continued to beat on her but her body grew numb to it, the cold now seeming to stem from her mind rather than her environment. Ruby`s thoughts drifted from these concerns.

She knew above all else she no longer had to energy to go on. Looking down at her hands the umpteenth time this night, she wondered how she still carried the knife _(not a virgin blade like Crescent Rose, it was a tool meant for murder)_. Earlier, before her senses had dulled, she was gripping it with whitened knuckles and she wondered if through her inability to feel fingers she was still grasping it the same. Ruby liked these thoughts, though she couldn`t figure out why.

Ruby Rose collapsed, but she was unsure of how she knew. She was having trouble holding her eyes open _(opened while you kill yet closed while you die, as a true coward)_ , the top of her world a red from the hood she hid behind while the rest a white of hellfire. The cold no longer cut through her like a blade, it ignited her, but instead of what would have been the blissful heat of an inferno it only brought with it the torturous pain of the storm.

The last of her strength was fading, and she felt the gongs of her Guilt beating against her, so impossibly hard that she was sure her skull would shatter. Her vision, regardless of her eyes now being frozen shut, was fading to _that_ red as she heard something in the snow, a fuzzy crunch resembling a footstep was in front of her. The pulsing was so encompassing that she hadn`t heard them until they seemed to be so close.

Her eyes refused to work and stayed closed on her, her mouth unable to open and ask the question of who, and, most important, her limbs unable to reach up to push them away, far from a murderer still holding the blade with a life frozen to it.

As her consciousness was slipping, she felt what she`d thought she never would again. Arms wrapped around her and from the points of contact, she felt blissful warmth flow into her being, giving her just the smallest amount of strength to help fuel her fight against the Guilt. The last thing she remembered was losing that fight.

* * *

 _Warmth, a gift, a reward after what you did._

She lay in what felt like a tub, or some sort of basin, with her body enveloped in water heated to an intense degree, almost scalding hot, though she wasn`t complaining. She found she couldn`t move, however, nor would her eyes open, that horrid shade of red staring at her from behind her eyelids. She couldn`t hear anything other than her own breathing, which she supposed was a step up from before. At least, that`s all she heard physically.

Usually, the voice in Ruby`s head was always the same volume, even if the tone changed. It never had been any louder or softer, and, most of the time, it was in full control of Ruby, working almost like a mouth nobody else could hear. Her thoughts reflected her own feelings.

But now, her head was a battlefield of soft screams and echoing whispers, making noises that she could feel vibrate down her spine. There were what seemed like hundreds in the background whose voices toppled over one another, trying to get Ruby to listen, the Guilt now breaking her unresisted as if a song beating against her head. She couldn`t catch their words other than the passing " _Die_ ," and " _Murderer_ ," the rest being indistinguishable mutterings.

Then there were the few who seemed they could be standing right next to Ruby. While not all of these were louder, these voices came across much more clearly, and focusing in on one was easy to her, but she regretted listening to each one as soon as she did.

One was telling her Yang had been destined to be killed; her actions only delaying the inevitable, as well as have taken a life that otherwise would have been long and happy, even if sinful. This voice pushed the memories of Ruby`s actions to her still closed eyes, forcing her to re-see what had happened _(suffer for your transgressions against the lost)_. She once again felt panic push to her legs, but her limbs were still unresponsive, and she was unable to flee as she had before. It took a few moments for Ruby to force away the voice along with the visions, but she eventually managed, relieved until another voice took its place.

The next took the approach of "An eye for and eye, and a life for a life" _(balance is dead, only another life to revive it)_. This voice made chills run down Ruby`s spine, and she made a mental note to ignore this one for sure should it ever return, likely as she could still hear the previous whisper`s mutterings in the background along with the others. Nonetheless, it did make her feel fear for her own death, another step up from her state from earlier. After a moment of consideration, she wondered if the man she`d murdered had felt similar emotions. This thought just made the voices as a whole louder, so she did her best to ignore it for now.

There were others, one saying that this could become a routine to drown out the memory _(lost in the void, you will soon forget)_ , another with the critique that her kill was messy and she needed to refine the act, as if an art _(potential in extremity)_. At these thoughts she once again felt the knife in her hand, apparently never having left her side. She was still unable to move and couldn`t bring her eyes to open and inspect it like she felt like she owed it.

She listened to each one in turn, trying to find her own voice, the one she could trust. She needed the voice that reflected her thoughts and desires, and not just one that tried to control her, or fill her with such negative feelings.

Whether or not she found that voice was up for debate, though she was eventually greeted by a voice bearing the opinion of justice and morality.

 _ **He was a monster. He deserved to die. All your life you`ve trained to become a huntress, to become a hero. You wanted to protect people who couldn`t protect themselves. His dying was the same as the slaying of any creature of Grimm. No tears should be shed, no death mourned.**_

She didn`t know if this voice belonged to her, but unlike the other voices she had pushed away, she found herself unable to do the same thing to this one.

 ** _Either he was slaughtered, or your sister was. An innocent or a serial killer. Beasts deserve what they inflict. A huntress would work towards a future where those who cannot protect themselves can live without worry._**

But how was Ruby any better? She did what she thought would have been such a wrong if done by someone else. If beasts deserve what they inflict, shouldn`t the same apply to her?

 ** _There is a difference. He planned to kill, he was excited by it. A killer without Guilt is a monster, no more and no less. You understand it is wrong to kill, and that`s why you did it._**

Ruby wasn`t stupid, she knew listening to voices in her head was crazy. However, this voice made her feel... Justified? Morally justified, in her actions. The longer she listened to this voice, the more the other voices began to fade into the background.

 ** _Morality is subject to interpretation, the definitions of justice and injustice varying from one creature to the next. It is those who do not have these definitions, who instead have the world split into what positively and negatively impacts them in exclusivity, who are truly immoral by not upholding any type of greater good or belief._**

The Guilt had faded, and the voices were now silent except for this one. Even through her current paralysis, Ruby managed a smile in relief.

 ** _They`ll be back in time. I`ll teach you how to converse with them. I`ll teach you how to sort through the voices to find reason and logic. I`ll teach you to clutch your own_** ideals ** _and feelings so they aren`t lost in the void. Above all, I will help._**

Ruby needed a friend right now, somebody to trust. She felt the voice slowly work its way into her heart and settled, relieving her of, for the time being, that red which had burned into her mind. Her sight faded to a blissful blackness, and she slept. Whether or not it was her voice before, it was now.

* * *

He didn`t know what was going on, or why she, of all people, was covered in human blood. What he did know was that he was lucky to have found her when he did and that she was in a horrible condition, leading him to ignore whatever accusations sprung into his mind.

She hadn`t acknowledged him when he had called her name in that street, nor, after he had realized just how bad of a condition she was in, when he`d rushed up to her side. She`d collapsed, sending a wave of panic through him, and he`d immediately picked her up and slung her over his shoulder in a fireman`s carry.

He didn`t know how long she`d been in this storm, but she felt as cold as the weather. Not a good sign. There was a knife in her hand she was clutching tightly. He spent the briefest of moments trying to get her to drop it, but that wasn`t happening - her grip on it was way too hard. A hospital would probably alert the police if they saw something like this, and since he didn`t know the whole story, that wasn`t an option.

So he set off towards his "home," praying she`d be alright, pretending any and all doubts his mind conjured up to create a story that would explain her state were unfounded and unfair. He couldn`t ignore the knife or the blood, but he could lie to himself and act like he could.

As soon as they were inside - the trip being only a few blocks but nonetheless too long - he`d rushed her to the bathroom, putting her in the tub and turning the water to the hottest temperature it would go. He`d plugged up the drain and let it fill to the brim, making sure to only keep Ruby`s head above the water, not bothering to remove her clothes, more out of convenience than out of concern for her modesty. He briefly considered trying to pry that knife from her hands again, for his sake rather than hers, but decided against it. With how she was with weapons, he knew that no force on the planet could tear her away from one she made a connection with, no matter what it might have been covered with.

The water was slowly turning a muted red-brown as the heated liquid around her melted the frozen blood from her form and the slush that had worked its way into her clothes. He ended up draining the tub and refilled it to keep the water clean, making sure the shower head was running as he did it so she would continue getting the heat her body was deprived of.

He went to find a glass from the kitchen, filled it with water from the sink, and set it on the counter near her. He then looked at her one more time before leaving the room. He had a lot of research to do before she woke up.

* * *

Ruby awoke only after her head had sunk just a bit too low, and she began spurting water out of her nose. She still felt tired, but that`s probably better than the alternative: dying. Looking around, she was in an unfamiliar setting, and in a delightfully warm tub, considerably cooler than when she was conscious of it in her sleep paralysis state.

The first thing she noticed was the Guilt beating against her head once more. It was dull compared to how it had been earlier, but nonetheless it was there and beating, much like a second heart. Ruby blinked - ah, eyes working is good - and ended up having to hold her head in her hands from the sudden flash - not as good. When she had momentarily her eyes, where usually light was dimmed through her eyelids and gave her a comforting dark grey or black, now all she saw was that red. The horrible colour of that man, that sin...

She shook her head, this causing the Guilt to beat harder. She wanted to screw her eyes shut to try to take her mind off it and distance the pain, but when she saw the red it just beat worse. After a moment of clutching her head with her eyes wide open, she remembered that voice she heard, telling her the Guilt was a gift. She almost laughed, before recalling the rest of that conversation and instead opted to shudder. Speaking of that state, had she been dreaming? There were no voices she could hear now, hopefully meaning it was just an auditory hallucination. Not minding that now, Ruby decided to keep her eyes open for as long as possible. Who needs blinking, right?

She was incredibly confused. Moving to get up, she found that she was sore all over, and her joints screamed as she reached to pull herself out of the tub, but they still worked, and the pain was, at the very least, better than the numbness. Looking to her left hand she noticed the knife was still there. With a yelp, she tossed it across the room, it landing on the sink`s counter a few feet away. Her hand was sore, more so than the rest of her body, and she recalled holding onto it as tightly as she had in the snow.

After she was free of the tub, Ruby made to call out for whoever had brought her here, but found her throat as ragged as a desert. Noticing a cup on the counter, she rushed to it without thinking, almost slipping from the water she`d brought out of the tub, and downed it quickly. She refilled it at the sink two more times before being satisfied. The knife still sat there, and Ruby felt as if it was staring at her.

Ignoring it, she looked around the room in search of a towel - she didn`t want to mess up somebody`s floor after they went through the trouble of helping a " _(murderer)_."

Ruby jumped and looked around, letting out a squeak with her eyes wide. "H-hello?" She asked the empty room, voice still ragged. She had a vague idea of what had happened in her head while in her paralyzed state, but she was counting it off as a dream. When nothing responded to her voice, she relaxed slightly and, not seeing a towel in the room, opened the door out of the bathroom and stepped out.

Entering the joined bedroom, she noticed the room was... barren. No pictures hung on the walls, the bed looked old and uncomfortable, and the only thing that looked like it lived here was a wad of mold growing on the wall across from her. The only illumination was coming from the ceiling light pouring from the bathroom.

Nothing else stood out, not a lamp nor fan, except for a folded piece of paper and a set of grey clothes several times Ruby`s size, all laid out neatly on the bed. Grabbing the sheet, water droplets soaking through large portions of it, she opened it and began reading a note in sloppy, out of control handwriting.

 _Ruby Rose, I don`t know what you got yourself into, but I`m glad you`re alright. I figured with the knife and blood and everything I`d pay a visit to the police office. (Not_ narcking _on you, don`t worry.) Be back soon. Don`t kill anyone else while I`m gone. Didn`t have any other clothes for you, so make do until I get back. Dryer probably works. Don`t go outside. Only got some canned foods I think. Will be back with something edible. Also, you might not read this if you don`t wake up while I`m gone, which would probably be for the best._

 _Don`t tell anyone, but I got something for you under those clothes I think will help. Truly sorry._

Ruby groaned internally, having a good guess at who it might be at this point after she`d considered the state of the handwriting. Looking at the clothes, there was a plain grey shirt sitting atop a pair of jeans, with a small lump near one of the shoulders. Picking the shirt up after drying her hands on the bed, Ruby saw the devil in the form of flask bearing the familiar design of a wing with gears towards its base.

She tossed it aside: she might not be the best citizen right now, but her father had made her promise not to drink until she turned of age - Vale`s being sixteen - and then only to do so under the supervision of sober adults. Plus, her head was still sounding the Guilt`s gongs, and she doubted this would do anything other than make her mental state worse.

Looking down at herself, she founded revulsion at the red stains on her clothes and hands. What disgusted her more, however, was how much it blended into her clothes; the blood now drying into her combat skirt was hardly noticeable, and the crimson splotches almost looked like they belonged.

Not caring about her state of dampness, quickly undressed and threw her clothes to the side, feeling only slightly bad as her beloved hood fell to the ground, leaving her in her underwear. She grabbed the shirt and pulled it over her head, unsurprised when it fell to her knees and she scoffed at the idea of even attempting to pull the jeans on.

She was still exhausted, and the bed looked welcoming, but another blink and a flash of red, now a more muted shade to reflect the dried blood, made her doubt sleep will come willingly. Another bout of Guilt pounded in her head, and Ruby glanced at the flask without thinking, pulled to it like the knife had before. A wave of determination came, and she picked up the flask, staring at it with narrowed eyes.

She wouldn`t let this control her, nor the Guilt, nor the red. Ruby braced herself and shut her eyes, meeting the red with fierce determination, sure she could beat the Guilt, the red, and the temptation if she just put her mind to it. The colour of her nightmares greeted her with an unbearably loud crack from the Guilt. She retreated, opening her eyes in less than a second and went to open the flask.

She popped the top off and took a whiff. It smelled... well, like her uncle. She isn`t able to distinguish drinks from one another, but it was definitely alcohol as far as she could tell. Bringing it to her mouth, she took the smallest of sips. Did it taste like... warmth? It reminded her of how mint made her mouth cold despite it being the taste rather than the temperature that did so. Taking more into her mouth, the drink was physically cold, yet as she swallowed, it burned her throat, the shock of it sucking her breath away.

She didn`t really have anything to compare it to and as she recovered, despite the drink having made it difficult to breathe, she felt the draw to take another swig.

* * *

Sirens had sounded off, threatening to stir Yang from her slumber. Her head felt like it had a jackhammer inside it, her best guess to assume she`d been drinking the night before. Of course she pushed away any attempt to rouse her. She was cold, leading the back of her mind to wonder where she`d fallen asleep this time. On the floor of a bar? Usually they call an ambulance if she drinks too much and passes out. She doubts somebody beat her in a drunken fight. Was that what she was hearing? Ambulances? Maybe.

Soon, she felt arms pull around her during her state of semi-consciousness and lifted her, making her give out a small groan. "Let me sleep a bit longer." Something was said in response but she couldn`t catch it. She was set down not much later and there were more words, filtered down to unintelligible mumbles.

Soon, there were more sirens sounding off. They really didn`t want her to sleep, did they? She attempted to lift her head up after a moment, but wow alcohol doesn`t like it when you do that. One eye cracks open momentarily, then shuts. Too many lights, all flashing. Couldn`t make sense of anything. A door shuts, she was inside now? Was she outside before? She decided she didn`t care and began to drift off to sleep again.

Later, she woke up, feeling not much better but, once her vision was willing to cooperate, able to make sense of her surroundings. When her eyes opened, they weren`t met with flashes, but bright lights were there nonetheless. It took a while to focus on anything around her, but she got there eventually.

As she was working on rejoining the land of consciousness, somebody noticed her, a young blond kid probably not much older than Yang herself. She thinks. Details were hard right now. He poked his head out a door - ah, so inside now, she must`ve been outside before - "Hey, she`s awake. You guys want to talk to her or do I ask her to just sit tight?"

A response came in, too muffled from the walls for her to catch, and he closed the door and approached her. "Hey, you feeling alright? Paramedics said nothing was wrong with you, so we just brought you straight here, hope that`s alright." Here? Yang looked around the room, now actually attempting to make use of her brain.

She was in a situation all too familiar: she sat in an uncomfortable metal chair bolted to the ground, optional slits for straps on the armrest - luckily not in use. A table was in front of her, roughly in the center of the room. _An interrogation room, great. What did I do now?_

The kid cleared his throat. Ah, right, he`d asked her something. "Yeah, sure." Usually answering yes or no when you aren`t paying attention works out, right? Her head was still going off, but not too badly, so hopefully her memories of last night would soon return. "Did I get in a fight or something and pass out?" Might as well get straight to it.

The kid looked shocked. "You don`t remember anything?" Scratch that, more of an incredulous look than shocked. She gave a shake of her head and he continued, "Ugh, try and remember something, please. When we found you we kinda thought you were dead, so putting some pieces together would help us out a ton."

Dead? Sounds about right if she was sleeping after getting drunk-off-her-ass. Yang was about to ask exactly what went on, but if this interrogation room isn`t just for lack of another room to put her in, he wouldn`t be allowed to tell her anything, and they`ll want her to give her own version of events she didn`t remember.

She didn`t reply, instead focusing on getting her brain to shut up. Alcohol always did this, filling her head with a soft buzzing and amplifying upon itself, becoming its own storm once she wakes up the next day, usually in trouble and without memories. As a couple more weathered-looking policemen enter the room, Yang finds herself thinking one thing:

 _I hate alcohol._

* * *

 **A/N:** Said this before, but any and all reviews are welcome. I do want to become a better writing, and can take any critique thrown my way.


	3. Chapter 3

_I love alcohol._

Ruby was lying in what can be assumed to be a maggots nest of a bed, sucking on her uncle`s empty flask like a baby would a bottle. The Guilt had lessened to a relaxed buzzing, and the red behind her lids, though it wasn`t in its entirety gone, had shifted to a deep, relaxing shade of purple, almost the colour of grape jams - still unsettling due to it being a colour other than black when she closed her eyes, but it was much more manageable. Even the voices had decided to make nice and were now singing in a language Ruby was sure her brain was inventing on the spot.

Her mind was in overdrive, silver eyes roamed over inch of the room to absorb every bit of information they could, flicking from area to area at a speed she would previously have thought impossible. She was in an uncontrollable permanent state of speed, her semblance flaring without her meaning it to, and she was trying to conserve energy by staying as still as possible - she didn`t want to pass out from the loss of Aura she`d reasonably assumed would occur if she were to move too much. Unfortunately, there wasn`t much to distract her with the walls of the room bearing no pictures or windows, her boredom making her antsier than she already was and she began wondering just what was in that drink that`d been left for her.

She found it much easier to focus on, well, anything she wanted to. She didn`t have to think of anything unpleasant and she found it to be surprisingly easy to push bad memories away, which was a welcome change to the state she`d been in earlier. However, she quickly began running out of things to occupy her mind, having already looked over that mold stain on the wall several times over and lacked anything else out of the norm or vaguely interesting to keep her attention.

She had been in the process of counting the flakes of dust on the ceiling - only at 8,870 so far - when she`d heard footsteps at the front door. She was surprised she was able to hear them through the storm outside, it not having relented during her time here, but she figured if her eyes and mind were working as they were they might as well pull her other senses along.

The steps made their way inside and throughout the house, closer and closer to where she lay, pausing only briefly outside the room to open the door. Qrow entered the room to find his niece lying in bed, facing away from him - the voices in her head were cut off from their singing as soon as he looked at her - she`d spent a majority of her waking moments here, never having bothered to leave the room.

Noticing she was still awake and sucking on his empty flask, he referred to the canister in her mouth, "You took all that down already?" Ruby heard him but decided not to acknowledge her uncle and instead began humming some song, the tune slurring into unrecognizable patterns making it impossible to place. She wasn`t sure exactly why she did this, but drunk people aren`t supposed to make sense, right? Might as well play the part. Or is it because she`s drunk that she decided to go along with it, and she actually wasn`t making sense? Ruby had no idea.

She only turned when he sat on the bed next to her and, taking her lips from the flask with an audible pop, she gave him a curt "Hello," and stared at him expectantly. The speed she had done this in was surely overdone, several rose petals flying out into the room, quite a few flung directly at Qrow. The odd part wasn`t necessarily that she was using her semblance like this, but that the petals she created were purple, rather than the usual red.

He was surprised and worried but tried not to show it, his eyebrows raising what usually would have been an unnoticeable amount and giving him away. Ruby`s eyes were in the process of scanning her uncle, flitting over him at an intense speed, making him shift just barely enough to let her know he was uncomfortable.

"It was probably a bad idea leaving whiskey for you, huh?" He reached for the flask, which Ruby pulled closer to herself, wrapping her arms around it protectively as if it were a child.

 _Whiskey? That`s what Yang had earlier at the restaurant, right? No wonder she wanted an excuse to drink, this stuff was great._

In reply to her uncle, she shook her head as slowly as she could, no petals freed this time. "Helped." She`d finished her scrutinization of her uncle and moved her eyes back to the ceiling to restart her counting of dust, only slightly annoyed at having lost her place.

"Yeah, figured it would. Though I gotta say you`re surprisingly... aware, for your first time. I half expected you to either be out cold or muttering like your sister usually does. Nothing crazy going on in your head?"

"How did you know it would help?" Her words were precise and enunciated with individual clarity, her eyes narrowed and harbored an expression of accusation directed towards her uncle.

He stared at her for a moment, surprised at how sober she sounded, before deciding to ignore her question and rephrase his own. "You`ve been alone for a few hours now, surely you must have considered something stupid by now. Are you trying to figure out if magnets are magic? Maybe if-"

Ruby cut him off, feeling vaguly insulted that he assumed she`d be stupid, and told him one of the things she`d thought of in bed before he`d come. "Do Grimm have toes? Because then they`d have a pinkie toe. That`s a weakness when fighting them if you can get them to stub it."

Qrow`s expression shifted to one of amusment. "You had to be a smart drunk, didn`t you?" His voice was laced with sarcasm, and a quick shrug came from Ruby before he continued, "Just don`t get addicted to this stuff, you don`t want to end up like me. This old crow can hardly fly straight." He reached over to ruffle her hair, sighing as she shifted away from his hand, and stood up from the bed. "You hungry, or are you going to sleep for more than a few hours?"

Ruby almost laughed. _Sleep?_ She doesn`t think she`s ever had this much energy. Instead of answering verbally, she responded by leaping out of bed and rushing out of the room, her uncle`s flask bouncing on the bed forgotten. As Qrow fanned his hand in front of his face to clear the air of rose petals, the girl was already exploring every nook and cranny in the house.

It didn`t take long for her to find the kitchen, the hall connected to the bedroom leading her directly to it, and though there was as little of interest here as there was in the bedroom, Ruby was greeted by an early day`s light streaming through a window. Other than the initial bearness of the room, she also noticed a grease-stained bag bearing the logo of fast food on the counter, along with a crumpled plastic bag and some large manilla envalope, but she ignored it all for now. Though she was fairly hungry, she figured she could wait for her uncle to come to the kitchen - her ears still working on overdrive and she could hear him working this way, though incredibly slowly.

Exploring the rest of the house, she found the note her uncle had given her earlier to be false in some aspects: there was no type of food in the house, excluding what Qrow had just brought home, canned or otherwise. There also was no dryer in the house she could find, nor a washing machine. Finding the rest of the house to be as bare as the bedroom and the kitchen, however, she found it definitely believable that he wouldn`t know what exactly what was here, and she didn`t blame him for supplying the misimformation. There was dust literally everywhere, and her footprints could easily be tracked throughout the house.

She made her rounds through what barely could be called a home, opening every cabinent and cupboard, searching every room until the house was almost memorized - not really much of a challenge due to there only being two other rooms in the house: a living room area holding only a wooden park bench in place of a couch, and a small closet she stood in for a total of five seconds, it being oddly warm. Would this count as a room? Probably. By the time she made it back to the kitchen, the house had trails of purple covering its floors and she had to give herself a moment to recover from the sudden loss of Aura - or at least, she assumed she would need to. Standing still to catch the breath she didn`t need, she felt oddly fine, and after a moment she began to wonder for the second time just what was in that drink.

"You know," Qrow said, the slowpoke finally deciding to catch up and enter the room, "you`re going to crash and burn if you keep it up at that speed." All he got in reply was a nod, too quick to see the uncertainty behind it. Sighing, he went to the counter and grabbed the envelope before tossing it towards Ruby. "Your sister woke up at the scene covered in blood and rose petals, these ones actually red. They thought she was a victim at first, but she convieniantly didn`t have any memories. She pretty close to being pegged a murderer." He began openening the grase-stained bag.

Ruby tried her best not to flinch at that last word and made to grab for the envalope, trying to open it gently but ended up moving at too great a pace, a rip forming in the folding. She renewed her attempt to open it, now with much more care and far less speed, asking while she did so "Am I going to jail? Because I don`t think that would be fun." Her tone was slightly joking, but her expression and tone were nuetral, and her words were seperate and articulated with the clarity they had earlier.

She was unused to seeing her uncle worried - usually he`d hide any and all negative emotions behind lewd stories of his missions, or under a mask of a devilish smile. Now, however, he wasn`t attempting any stories, and his smiles seemed fake. Qrow took just a moment too long to answer her. "No, I got it covered. Your sister is fine too, good to know you`re worried." He was trying to come off as sarcastic and carefree to help her feel better, but she could see past it. Was it that he was worried to the extent of slipping up? Or was he doing as well as he usually did, and whatever was in that drink was just allowing her to notice this?

There was a moment of silence where neither spoke before Qrow continued. "You know, you could talk about this type of thing if you want. Would certainly help my own conscious knowing I didn`t help you get away with a killing for the fun of it. They did deserve it, right?" She said nothing in response, opting to glare at him instead, and he didn`t press the issue. They sat in silence once more, Ruby getting the envelope open and looking through its contents. Her uncle seemed just a bit frustrated with the silence, and, trying to find an excuse to talk, took a burger from one of the bags on the counter and tossed it to her. "Eat up, got more if you can stomach it."

She barely managed to catch the food in the crook of her elbow- couldn`t he see her hands were full with papers? She`d kept her face clear of emotion to mask her annoyance at her uncle`s words - of course he deserved it! Right? Unwrapping the burger, she quickly tore into it, taking huge bites and chewing fast, one hand staying on task and going through the papers from the envelope - mostly stuff she aready knew: Yang`s name, past crimes, address, and everything found near the body of the man she`d murdered.

"Slow down, you don`t want to choke." She glared at him as he gave another sigh - _full of those today, isn`t he?_ \- and looked her over. Though she was obviously trying to slow down, her semblance kept flaring unitentionally whenever she lost focus, but her Aura wasn`t draining as she, and as she assumed her uncle, had feared. Instead of a lack of Aura, she was suffering more from a lack of sleep and she knew she must be beginning to show obvious signs of exhaustion. She ignored his gaze, oddly still feeling energized even through her fatigue, like a fully charged scroll with a horribly cracked screen; annoying to work with, sure, but definitely doable.

The burger hadn`t lasted long and, setting aside the papers, she took the bag from the counter and looked into it to find there was much more fake meat where that`d come from; burgers, fries, and - _oh, dangit_. Being just a bit too excited for more food, she`d sent another wave of rose petals throughout the room, quite a few going into the bag. The burgers were at least wrapped, but the petals had worked their way into the fry boxes. Ruby sneered, annoyed she had begun turning it into a salad.

She took another burger out of the bag, slowly so as to not create more of what was quickly becomming an annoyance, and unwrapped it, eating deliberately and just slow enough to keep the petals from forming. This was an irritating process, and she very much so desired to waste as little time as possible.

It didn`t take long for Ruby to finish off the food in the bag, even picking petals out of the fries to eat them, too. Qrow seemed to notice how annoyed she was at having to move so slowly, and his... "watchful eye" only served to make her more uncomfortable.

"Why do you keep looking at me like that?" Ruby shifted uncomfortably under his gaze, though her uncle bore a look of satisfaction from her reaction.

"No reason, just wondering when you`re going to act like someone who`s only slept, what, four hours? After wandering around in a storm that almost killed you while already being exhausted from a mission? Yang was very specific in saying you`ll be tired when I met her at the station. Or maybe you`ll show some signs that a fifteen-year-old is freaking out on the inside because she killed somebody? Take your pick." His words may have been accusatory, but his tone was more one of questioning and bore a worried weight.

"Just because I`m fifteen doesn`t make me a child." The amused expression on her uncle`s face as she said this made her want to punch him. "I can handle myself," more smugness, more temptation, "and you can treat me like you normally do."

He must have realized he was pushing it once a horribly suppressed laugh escaped his lips, Ruby giving him her best Weiss-like glare, and he decided to try and make nice. He grabbed the other bag, this one plastic and grease-free, and opened it to reveal a plastic container, arching over its contents in a dome and housing a-

"Cake!" Ruby rushed forward, her semblance once again triggering and her eyes wide with a yearning expression plastered on her face. The only thing holding her back from tearing the cover off and digging in then and there was her uncle. Having seemingly expected her to react in such a way, Qrow had stepped inbetween her and the delectable mass of white frosting and strawberries - this being a red she can always get behind - picking her up by her waist and holding her in place at arm`s length when she attempted to climb over him to get to it.

His had a smile on his face, but this was one more of relief and genuine happiness compared to the smugness he`d held before."What were you saying about not being a child?" This caused Ruby to pause and look down at him from where she was held.

"This isn`t childish, it`s a sugar addiction. _You_ of all people should understand."

Her accussatory tone was more or less shrugged off. "Know what kids don`t have? Self-restraint. Now calm down or no cake." Ruby pouted, but otherwise became still. Setting her down, he turned to remove the plastic covering. "We have the issue of no plates or silverware, but as eager as you just were I`ll assume you`re fine with that. Just don`t make a mess. I`m too lazy to clean this place."

Ruby stood on her tip-toes and leaned on her uncle to see over his shoulder as he said this. "What kind is it? Are there strawberries inside like on the outside?"

"Uh," Qrow looked at the label on the cover, "strawberry infused lemon cake. And I have no idea. Is that important?"

"Very!" She reached out from either side of her uncle to try and reach the food. "Pleeeeeeeease! I need it!"

"Alright, alright. You`re welcome, by the way." He had only a slightly hard time moving out of the way with Ruby practically on top of him, but once she was clear she... went in head-first. Literally.

* * *

Turns out Ruby had passed out, most likely from sleep deprivation. Qrow, once he realized she wasn`t just being weird, had rushed over to make sure she didn`t suffocate, as he figured death by cake would probably be pretty embarrassing. He wasn`t completely surprised that she had finally burned out, but what caught him off guard was that she`d pick a perfectly good cake to ruin, which was very unlike her.

He carried her to the only bed in the house and tucked her in. He`d assumed she would be sick once she`d woken up, but she was eerily at attention. Retrieving the flask from the bed where she`d left it, he turned it upside down, sighing when the only thing dripping out was saliva. He had more, of course. He always carried minimum two flasks on him, often more, filling them up whenever he could. The lack of it wasn`t the problem, it was who it was that had consumed it.

He`d left it as an afterthought, knowing that once she`d woken up she`d probably have hell going through her mind, but he had assumed she`d take a sip and spit it out or just not drink at all. Of course, he knew her drinking it had at least a chance of happening when he left the flask, and he understood that it probably helped her more than even he knew. This did not stop him from regretting doing so, however.

He bent over to pick up the damp clothes that had been dumped on the floor earlier, sighing as he realized that he would probably have to burn them - minus the hood, of course - on the off chance somebody tried to look into things, though he really doubted this would happen. He had pulled enough favours to erase any and all information pertaining to Ruby, and she might as well have not existed last night. Looking the hood over, he knew he`d probably have to bleach it clean, and he doubted Ruby would be happy.

A scroll tumbled out of one of Ruby`s pockets as he held the overturned clothes, and he jumped slightly when it hit the floor with a "thud." After looking over to Ruby to confirm she hadn`t stirred, he let out a sigh of relief and he bent over to pick it up.

The scroll didn`t respond when he pulled it open, either dead or waterlogged. He sighed, doubting he had a charger anywhere in this house. Qrow just didn`t have anything here that would make it practical for his niece to live here for any length of time - he was even somewhat surprised when water had flowed from the tub faucet. This house wasn`t for living, he just needed a legal address to tie to his name; he went outside the city too much to bother buying a real home. Maybe he could just get a P.O. box? Would that even count as an address?

His own scroll was some crazy government-grade tech that lasted weeks at a time, designed to have its battery swapped out instead of being charged. He groaned inwardly, slipping the device into his pocket. He had to go out again later anyway, for new clothes that actually fit his niece, as well as enough food to last another day or so - at least until he was sure she was mentally able to go back to school. Probably bleach, too.

Speaking of his own scroll, it had been silently vibrating throughout the night: one or two messages received from Ozpin wanting to know if he was still alive, and several dozen from Yang wanting to know where her sister was. He sighed, pulling it out and giving some half-assed excuse to Ozpin about a family emergency. It wasn`t a lie for sure, but knowing the old man he was almost sure to look into it.

Yang couldn`t be written off as easily, and had been a bit of a pain when he`d run into her at the police station. Finding it rather convenient that Qrow had just so happened to know where she was and that rose petals had been found in abundance at the crime scene, she`d pestered him nonstop in person and, after he`d left the station and told her to go back to Beacon, she`d continued bothering him through his scroll. He didn`t care to read all her messages and just sent a text saying Ruby would be back to school within the week, probably - most likely the next couple of days. This, of course, only spurred another round of messages.

He turned off his scroll, and though the act was technically "forbidden" due to his line of work, he didn`t much care. He was done. He`d had a long day and he was low on booze: whenever this happened, it meant it was time for bed - Ruby lying in what was the only bed in the house meant Qrow, after discarding the damp clothes in the bathtub, went to the living room to lie down on the bench. He doesn`t entirely remember why there was a bench in place of a couch - he`d been expieramenting with new liquor the night he`d bought the house. Nonetheless, it was probably better than the ground.

* * *

For well over a day, Ruby had slept in a state of torpidity, unresponsive to any and all outside influences. Upon finally awakening, she`d found her uncle had taken the liberty of bleaching her hood several times over, it now being almost a pure white with just the slightest tint of pink to it. The rest of her clothes seemed to have mysteriously vanished, and in their place she was forced to wear more of her uncle`s shirts, along with a few pairs of jeans he`d bought while she`s slept. When questioned, her uncle would just dodge any questions pertaining to her usual attire, telling her to he`ll just take her shopping for new clothes later, and that he`d get her some dye to fix her hood. The jeans she was forced to wear were far too long, and while they fit around her waist snugly, she had to fold the ends up so they`d come above her ankles.

The two days following her awakening, her uncle had insisted on keeping watch on his niece at all times, acting more as a hawk than a crow, and he`d treated her as an incompetent child - as if! She`s a young, independent woman, who only _once_ fricked up her entire life. He continually talked to her in a calm, careful, respecting voice that made her want to hit him.

She ate, she slept when the voices in her head would finally shut up, and she lived. This, of course, was the worst part. She _killed_ somebody. Shouldn`t she be in jail, or at least be subjected to some kind of punishment? Sure, she had voices in her head, and she recognized that this probably didn`t make her completely mentally sound and that alone could be considered punishment, but she still felt like herself. She didn`t feel like a murderer, and this led to long periods of doubt, introspection, and conversing with the voices. This, of course, always turned out as well as it had the first time.

After two more days of being locked in what might as well have been a comfortable prison, conversations always using the phrase "Yes, I`m fine, and no, I don`t want to talk about it," night terrors contridictory to this phrase, soft mumbles to herself whenever she thought Qrow wasn`t listening, and what was simply a lack of her usual spark - her negative emotion being such common place he was certain she was going through a much worse time than she let on - Ruby was somehow able to convince her uncle to let her out. This was mostly due to her finally stopping herself from staring longingly towards Qrow every time he took a swig from his flask - she still saw red whenever she blinked, and she would often jump in fear at seemingly random intervals.

Of course, she couldn`t go to school yet. No, that would have been far too practical and she`s only missed a week so far, her grades probably droping to a point where getting them back up would barely be hell. Instead, she`d gotten "permission" to go shopping for clothes that actually fit - under her uncle`s surpvision, obviously.

So that`s where they were now, as she made sure to try on every non-red outfit in the store and ask him how she looked in each and every one of them, just to make him suffer. Everything she tried on was either too plain, too decorative, too tacky, too bright, or whatever else she could come up with.

"You look fine in everything, now _please_ pick something so we can go." He of course knew what she was trying to do, and she knew that he knew, and he probably knew that she knew that he knew. Ruby like to think that was part of the fun. Serves him right for treating her like she was broken.

"Back to prison with you? No, I think we can take a bit longer." A plastic smile on her face, Qrow responded by narrowing his eyes and pulling out his flask, taking a sip that lasted a lot longer than it should have. After Ruby was able to keep her eyes locked with his under unwavering resolve as he did so, he swallowed his drink and sighed.

"Fine, you can go back to school tomorrow. Pick some clothes out already so we can go."

Ruby`s face shifted into what had been a rare sight these past few days: a genuine smile. She gave her uncle a soft "Thank you," and reached over to give his arm a quick hug. He was surprised, the thought of schooling his expression probably not even occuring to him as his eyebrows shot up and his eyes widened.

"Uh, no problem, kid," was all he could respond with before she pulled away. She of course still loved her uncle and wanted him to know as much, she just had been finding it harder to express it recently. It certainly didn`t help that he mothered her, but he was just worried and she couldn`t fault him for that. Well, yes she could - and would.

As she went back to the racks to pick out some clothes she actually liked, mostly consisting of deep shades of purple, she considered her options for what was probably the hundredth time in these past few days. Obviously staying at Beacon could be a problem: there were "moral guidelines' all hunters and huntresses must abide by; one of these rules of, course, being not to kill.

Nobody would have to know what had happened and she only had to take the oath to follow their rules once she graduated, but her concious was a warzone as it is, and she`s not sure she would be able to handle a code of ethics she`d already broken. She just didn`t know what else she could _do._ All her life she`s trained to be a huntress, so where could she apply the skills she`s spent so long aquiring?

She could just push her past behind her. Who would know? Her uncle only had a bit of the story, and he`d told her Yang didn`t even remember anything past sitting down at the coffee shop. That just left the police, who she assumed had been paid off or had something similar persuade them to turn away from her case. She could still be a huntress, even if she did get away with murder.

Ruby`s body was moving on its own down the aisles, grabbing clothes and putting them over her sholder as she continued her line of thinking: Did Blake kill as a White Fang member? Maybe, but she still acted as a huntress would. As long as it didn`t happen again it wouldn`t be a problem, right? Though with the voices in her head she isn`t sure how long a code of ethics would last. They`d tried tempting her these past few days whenever she was alone: to run from the house and be free from what was basically a cage, or to insult and mock her uncle regardless of how it`d make him feel. She came very close to acting on this first thought, something she was sure she`d never attempt normally, and it worried her. At least they only bothered her when she was alone, something Qrow tried to restrict to as little time as possible.

Her thoughts were interrupted by her uncle. "You almost done? We`ve been here for hours. I`d rather die of old age in the comfort of my own home."

"Yeah, I guess we are on a timer there. I`ll be done in a second." Qrow sighed again, and Ruby felt an odd satisfaction. She knew her words weren`t exactly _polite_ , but neither was keeping her in a birdcage for five or six days - she kept meaning to ask how long she`d been asleep - and she`d found that either passive-aggresive or something bording on impolite words directed towards her uncle was an easy way to distract her from her worries, thus fufilling the second thought the voices had planted in her head. Besides, home? That word was being used incredibly loosely here, his nest not being a step above bare bones. She really doubted her uncle had been in it over the course of his entire life for the amount of time as he has these past few days.

Of course, she felt slightly bad. He was just trying to do his best to make sure she was alright, but he didn`t have to watch over her 24/7. Watching, watching, always _watching._ She sighed inwardly and let the thoughts drop.

Holding a variety of clothes folded over her arm - by variety she meant shirts and skirts primarily coloured purple, as they didn`t have combat skirts - she worked her way back to her uncle and tried to give him a real smile as a way of saying, 'I know you kind of deserve this but I feel bad anyway,' but it just came out as a grimace.

He seemed to appreciate the effort and reached over to ruffle her hair. After she was effectively blinded by her own bangs, he said, "Clothing isn`t cheap, you know. You`re lucky Oz pays overtime."

"Right, thanks. Speaking of the whole working thing, shouldn`t he know that you aren`t, you know, doing that?" To be honest, she wasn`t one-hundred percent sure what exactly was in her uncle`s job description, but she always pictured him as a superhero-ninja, silently saving the day without anyone knowing his name because it was more about helping the people in trouble than it was getting recognition. He would do all this under the guise of a simple teacher from Signal, of course.

Said hero was once again pulling out his flask to stay as far away from sober as he could. "I`ve already sent word to him, don`t worry." He saw his niece begin to open her mouth and cut her off before she could begin. "And before you ask: no, I didn`t tell him about your whole situation. I`m not going to get you kicked out of school, so don`t worry."

"What situation?" A familiar voice sounded off to the side of them, and Ruby`s semblance flared on reaction as she darted to hide behind her uncle, a flurry of petals, now their rightful red, drifting to the floor where she had been standing. Weiss looked at her partner`s wide, shocked eyes, her own face scrunching up in confusion. "Uh, Ruby? Are you okay? I know we haven`t seen each other in a while, but what happened? Yang is really worried."

Laughing awkwardly, Ruby rubbed the back of her neck and stuttered out, "H-heh, uh, you know. Just, uh," she looked to her uncle for a bit of help.

"Family time," was all he said.

"Right! Family time, you know how it is. This is my uncle Qrow, he`s the family. That I`m spending time with. Family time." Ruby bit her lip in apprehension after she said this, hoping the heiress would buy it.

Weiss seemed... stupified? Ruby could only really hope she didn`t ask questions. The heiress gave a hesitant nod towards Qrow. "Nice to meet you, sir." She gave a quick curtsy and turned her attention back to her partner. "Ruby? Are you sure you`re okay? You haven`t been to school all week, and you`re clothes shopping of all things? Do they even sell combat skirts here?" She gestured towards the clothes in Ruby`s arms with a grimace. "And purple really isn`t your colour."

At this, Ruby just put more of herself behind her uncle, though this time out of shame rather than fear. "Yeah, I know..."

Weiss, as always, seemed to have trouble expressing her worry for her teammate, and instead tried to play it off like she was more worried about herself. "When are you coming back to school? Our team is graded as a whole, and I don`t want the rest of us looking bad on our quarter reports because _you_ wanted to play hooky. You have a lot of work to makeup, Ruby!"

Qrow spoke up, forcing Weiss to remember that he was, in fact, not just a wall for his niece to hide behind. "She should be back at school by tomorrow, actually. Tell Yang not to worry, and that I`m taking good care of her."

Weiss still appeared slightly worried, but looking over to see Ruby give her a reassuring smile, she nodded her head. "If you say so." She pointed behind her, towards another section of the store. "Nora dragged me here to help her pick out some clothes, if you want to say hello. Yang seemed to not only make your own team fear for you, but JNPR as well."

Ruby stepped out from her uncle, glad that Weiss wasn`t really asking the type of questions she had been fearing. "No, thanks, but tell her I said hi. I`ll be back in school before you know it, so make sure Yang doesn`t freak out too much." Weiss looked uneasy as her partner`s smile shifted to plastic, but seemed satisfied that she would soon be returning.

"Alright, Ruby. See you tomorrow." Giving an awkward wave, she made her way back where Ruby assume she came from.

"Well," Qrow said, "that wasn`t as awkward as it could have been." Ruby just gave a groan in response. "Yeah, yeah. Come on, let`s get checked out so you can complain about being in a cage again.

* * *

 **A/N:** As always, any and all reviews are accepted and appreciated.


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